Machine for carding snap-fasteners



0 E. L. ROGER. MACHINE FOR CARDING SNAP FASTENERS.

APPL'CATION on Patented Dec- 13, 1 921.v

7 SHEETS-SHEET l.

INvEN'ron I figl v BY ms A'r'romq zms 1 7 M bcw E. L. ROGER. MACHINE FOR CARDING SNAP FASTENERS.

APPLICATION F ILEDI OCT- 27, I919- .TSHiETS-SHEET 2.

Erma Amxnmrs E. L. ROGER. MACHINE FOR CARDING SNAP FASTENEBS.

APPLICATION .FILED OCT- 27, I919- Patented Dec. 13-,v 1921.

I 7 SHEETS-SHE ET 3.

-lvll llll v u HU INVENTOR 6 E. L'. ROGER. MACHINE FOR CARDINGSNAP FASTENERS.

APPLICATION FILED OCT- 27, l9l9- 1,400,002, Patented Dec. 13, 1921.

7 SHEETS-SHEET 5.

BY HIS ATTORNEYS E. .L. ROGER.

MACHINE FOR CARDING SNAP FASTENERS.

APPLICATION FILED OCT- 27, 919- Patented Dec, 13, 1 921. ISHEETS-SHEET 6."

BY ms ATTORNEYS 0 EL ROGER MACHI NE FOR CARDING SNAP FASTENERS. APPLICATION FILED OCT- 2], 1919.

1,400,002, Patented Dec. 13, 1921.

7 SHEETS-SHEET 7.

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" & 'x- H l l f1? [2/ /?Z /25 INvENTon ma DY ms ATT0RNEY1 UNEEEF S'FATEF earner QEFFEQE.

EUGENE L. ROGER, or NEW YORK, n. ASSIGNOR To .aiiisaroan rssrrnivnn COMPANY, INC., OF NEW YORK, N. Y., A COREOBATION OF NEW YORK.

ACHINE roe caamne sitar-skewness.

Application filed. October 27, 1919. Serial No. 333,753.

T 0 all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, EUGENE L. ROGER, a citizen of the United States, residing at 130 i est; 82nd street, New York city, in the county of New York, State of New York, have invented certain new and'useful Improvements in Machines for Carding Snap- Fasteners; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as" will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

This invention relates to a machine for carding stud and socket snap fasteners, that is to say, a machine for mounting a plurality of stud and socket snap fasteners on a card so that the stud extends through the card and engages with the socket, the card being clamped between the two parts of the fasteners.

An important object of the invention is to provide a machine entirely automatic in its action which will mount a plurality of snap fasteners on a card, say one, twoor three dozen, for example, in a condition ready to be put on the market.

Another important object of the invention is to provide a pair of rollers for carrying the fasteners, one roller being designed to carry a series of stud elements and the other roller being designed to carrya correspondingseries of socket elements. These rollers are provided with suitable recesses for holding the fastener elements. The inner sides of the recesses are connected with means for creating a suction, whereby the atmospheric pressure aids in holding the several fastener elements in place in their respective recesses.

It is a further object of the invention to provide means for feeding a card between the rollers at the proper time so that a set' of stud elements is caused to pass through the card and into engagement with the sockets on the other side, thereby toclamp the card between cooperating pairs of fastener elements. 1

It is a further object of the invention to provide feeding means tofeed the fastener elements to the recessesin the rollers from a hopper, sodesig'ned that the fastener elements are automatically arranged by the feeding means right side up and fed to the appropriaterecesses in the described rollers whereby each socket element is in proper p0- Specification of Letters latent.

Patented Dec.13, 1921.

sition to receive the stud of the fastener element on the other roller.

"It isa' further object Ofthe invention to provide a variable speed drive for the described rollers. I

Other objects and advantages'will appear as the description proceeds.

" In the draw ngs lllustrating one embodi-' ment of my invention,

Figure 1 is a side view of the complete machine; Fig. 2'is an end view of the same; i

Fig. 3 is a view on an enlarged scale of part of the feeding mechanism for the studs; Fig. 1- is' a sectionon the line 4.& of Be Fig. 5 is a top view of Fig. 4, being omitted; i v

Fig. 6 is a bottom view with the chutes removed;

Fig. 7 is a section view 'on an enlarged scale of one of the feed chutesshowing one of the stud fasteners in position therein;

the hopper Fig. 8 is aview partly in section showing part of the, feeding means for the socket elements;

Fig. 9 is a top view of Fig. 8, the hopper being omitted v Fig. 10 is a bottomview of Fig. 8,'thechutes being omitted Fig. 11 is a sectlon on an enlarged scale through one of the feed chutes showing one Fig. 14 is a perspectlve vlew showing the driv'e'mechanism; w

' Fig. 15 is a view partly in section showing the card feeding mechanism;

Fig. 16 is a side view of certain driving gears shown'in Fig. 15; f

F'g. 17 shows means for adjusting one of the gears shown in Fig. 15; Fig. 18 is a front view of the feeding device for the stud elements, certain parts being removed;

Fig. 19 is a section on the line 19-19 of Fig. 18;

Fig. 20 is a section on the line 20-20 of Fig. 18; looking. in the direction of the arrows with certain parts removed; Fig. 21 is a front view of the feeding means for the socket elements; certain parts I arrows so as to clamp a card 1 between them.

One of the rollers, such as A, is designed to carry stud fastener elements, while theother, roller B is designed to carry socket fastener elements. Such stud and socket elements are shownin Fig. 24 and are of a well ,known type. Each of the rollers A and B is provided with a seriesof recesses 2 which are arranged in a plurality of rows on each roller. receive a single fastener element.

By means of a plurality of channels 3, each recess is in communication with a space 4 within the roller, which space 4, by means that willhereinafter be described, is subjected to suction, whereby the suction is transmitted through the passages 3 and aids in seating the fastener elements in their respective recesses. Stud fastener elements are indicated at 6 and socket elements at 5.

The upper part of the rollers rotate toward each other so as to bring the respective recesses into registration whereby each stud element 6 snaps into its respective socket element 5, clamping the card 1 therebetween.

As a matter of practice, the number of recesses on the roller is such that they occupy only a relatively small part of the roller, and for that reason it is desirable, in order to save time, to speed up rotation of the roller during that part of the revolution when blank portions of the roller are adjacent one another.

In other words, a variable speed drive is desirable, so arranged that when the rollers are in the position shown in Fig. 12, they are driven comparatively slowly, but so ar ranged that after aset of elements is in place on a card, the roller is rapidly rotated until. .a new set of elements is ready to be fed into the respective recesses. This drive will now be described. A power driven shaft 7 carrying a gear 8 which meshes with a gear 9, drives shaft 10, which, through gears 11 and 12 drives a shaft 13 carrying an elliptical gear 14 meshing with a similar elliptical gear 15 on the shaft '16. Shaft 16 carries a helical gear 17 meshing with a similar helical gear 18 on a shaft 19 fixed to a hollow shaft 20, on which hollow shaft 20 one of the rollers, such as B, is mounted. Shaft 20 is provided with a gear 21 meshingwith a gear 22 on a hollow shaft 23 on which is mounted the other roller A. The

Each recess is of a size to mechanism-just described is designed to ro-- tate the rollers toward each other, the purpose of the elliptical gear 'beingto provide the variable speed drive for the purpose already mentioned. r

The means for feeding the stud fastener elements to the appropriate roller will now be described, reference being had to Figs. 3 to 7, 19, 20 and 21.

24 indicates a hopper for holding the stud fastener elements. It is necessary that these stud fastener elements be sorted out so that they will: all be right side up when they get to the roller. opens into the upper end of a sleeve 25, the inner part of said sleeve being machined out into two grooves 26, which, as shown in Fig. 5, are away from. one another, and

which, as shown in Fig. 4, diverge at their lower ends. Adiaphragm 27'is positioned between the stud grooves so as to define two spaces of substantially. the shape of .a stud fastener element. It will be apparent that a stud fastener element can only enter one of the grooves 26 when the stud has itsflat part against the diaphragm 27 and itshead in the groove 26. In other words, all

To this end, hopper 24 of the studs that pass into the left hand" groove 26, have the studs facing to the left, while all those passing into the right hand groove 26, have their studs facing to the right.

Each of the just described passages opens into I a chute 28, shown in Fig. 7, which is shaped so as to afford a passage for a stud element, thehead of which projects out of reciprocating sleeve 32 is provided which. moves up and down to agitate the stud elements, this sleeve 32 being operated by'the agitator arm 33, which may be operated in any desired manner. Y

Referring now to Fig. 18, each of the chutes 28 registers with its respective groove 34 on a feeding block 35; Grooves 34 'are of an inverted T-shape in cross section, whereby the studs 6 will be positioned therein asshown in Fig. 19 with the stud project- 7 ing out through thegroove 34. This block 35 is provided with. a longitudinally extend ing groove 36 in which a slide 37 is adapted to reciprocate. A series of holes 41, the edges of which are indicated at 38 and 39 are cutthrough the block 35, said holes being .in registry with the slide groove 36. Slide'37 is provided with a series of blocks 40 fixed thereto and positioned in said holes 41, so that blocks 40 move back and forth in the holes 41 as the slide 37 is reciprocated.

To each of the blocks 40 is fixed by screws 42, a plate 43 provided with cut-out portions defining shoulders 44 and 45. Shoulder 45 of one plate 43 is arranged adjacent shoulder 44 of the neighboring plate and are so positioned that either one or the other of them is interposed across the groove34 so as to hold the studs 6 in the groove. Shoulder 44 is positioned at a point below shoulder 45 by a distance about equal to the diameter of one of the projecting heads of the stud fastener elements.

Each of the plates 43 is reciprocated upon the reciprocation of the slide 37. As shown in Fig. 14, slide 37 is connected to an eccentrically operated arm 46 that is operated by the shaft 16. p

In Fig. 18, six feed grooves 34 are shown.

lVhen the slide 37 is moved to the left, six

fastener elements drop down on to the six shoulders 44. When the slide moves in the opposite direction, these six fastener elements become disengaged from the respective shoulders 44 and drop out through the lower part of the groove. Meanwhile, each of the six fingers 45 is moved to a position shown in Fig. 18 to hold the remainingv fastener elements in the upper part of the several grooves 34.

The means for feeding the socket elements is similar in general principles to the means just described for feeding the stud elements, the parts being modified somewhat toaccommodate the somewhat different shape of the socket element. The socket element 5, however, is provided with a head, which, while not as pronounced as the head of the stud element, is sufficiently pronounced so that this head may be used in sorting out the fastener elements as the head is used in regard to sorting out the stud fastener elements.

A hopper 48 is provided to hold 'a plurality of socket elements. The hopper 48 communicates with the sleeve 49 made in two parts and grooved as shown in Fig. 9 to define an opening 50, slightly longer than the diameter of a socket element. Grooves 51 are provided on the interior of the opening 50 which diverge as shown in Fig. 8 and connect with separate chutes 59. As each socket element drops into the space 50, its head is guided by one of the grooves 51 into either one or the other of the chutes 59. At this point, all of the socket elements in one chute 59 are faced in one direction and all of those in the other chute are faced in the opposite direction. Each of chutes 59 is twisted through substantially 90 so that all of the socket elements 5 are in the post tion shown in the lower part of Fig. 8 with the head to the right and the socket opening to the left. i

Each of the chutes 59, here shown as six in number, communicates at its lower end with a groove 60 font in the block 61, each groove 60 having cut therein a smaller groove 62 in which rests the head 5 (see Fig. 24) of the socket element.

The block 61 has'cut therein a longitu dinal groove precisely similar to the groove 36 shown in the block 35, in which reciprocates a slide 63 which is actuated by a cam in precisely the same way that the slide 37 is actuated and which is not here shown. A series of holes 64 is cut through the center part of the block 61 in registry with the aforementioned longitudinal groove. The walls of the hole 64 are shown at 65. 7 Fixed to the slide 63, are a series of blocks 66 attached by screws 67 to the slide. Attached to each of the blocks 66 is a plate 68 provided with upper and lower fingers 69 and 70, so designed that either one or the other of said fingers is interposed across one, of the grooves 60. A series of plates 71 is attached to the fixed walls 61' carried by the body portion 61 and is provided with edges 72 extending over the grooves.

60 so as to keep the fastenersin said grooves. With the slide and plate 68 in the position shown in Fig. 21, if the slide is moved tow the left, each of the fingers 70 will. let go of a socket element 5, while each of the fingers 69 will move across the groove so as to prevent any more from passing downwardly through the groove. In other words,

with each single reciprocation of the slide 63, a single fastener element passes out of the lower end of each of the six grooves. I Referring to Fig. 12, the grooves 34 and 60 respectively, opening from the feed blocks 35 and 61, feed the fastener elementsinto a series of chutes 72, which are each provided with an opening 73- whereby the several fastener elements are dropped in position in the recesse 2, in the rollers A and B. Grooves 74 areprovided in these feed chutes to allow the heads of the fastener elements to pass therethrough. U f Referring to Figs. 12 and 13, the interior of the hollow shaft 20 and 23 is in communication with passages 3 and 4 throughv the holes 20 and 23. The interior of hollow shafts 20 and 23 is subjected to suction through pipes 75 and 76, 76 being connected to a vacuum pump, not shown. A .valve 77 arranged to open and close pipe 76 and actuated by a cam 78 fixed on the shaft 20 part of the rotation of the rollers when no fastener elements are in position on said rollers. As soon a 'the first recess 2 comes in r y w th the f e p ng .73. h

cam turns on the suction so as to hold the While air 82, which, in turn may be driven from the shaft 10, Fig. 14, is provided with a pair of mutilated gears 83 and 84: and an upper spiral gear 85. The gear 84 meshes with a spiralgear 86 mounted on a shaft 87 which fshaft carries a rubber faced roller 88 which -.contacts with a second suitably mounted rubber faced roller 89. j r

Gear 83 meshes with a gear 86 precisely similar to gear 86 mounted on shaft 90 which shaft is provided with a rubber faced roller 91 and contacts with a second rubber faced roller 92. The four described rollers rotate toward each other as shown by the arrows. The mutilations in the gears 83 [and 84 are so designed that the gear 84k starts gear 86 rotating a very small time ahead of the operation of the gear 86. Such an ad ,justment is readily secured by the adjust- ,able mounting for the gear 84, shown in 7 Figs. 15 and 17. This mounting comprises bolts 9 1 carried by the gear 8 1 whichare adjust-ably mounted in arcuate slots 93 in the plate 95, which is mounted on the shaft 80. A funnel element 9o is arranged be tween the two pairs of rubber rollers to I guide the card from the upper pair to the lower pair. The cards are held inthe space '97 in the box 98, an exit groove for a single card being shown at99. A plate 100 actuated by the rack and pinion 101 and 102 force the cards to theleft, as shown in Fig. 15. Pinion 102 moves rack 101 to the'left and causes plate 100 to exert pressure on the cards by means of a weight 105 hung on wheel 10 1 fixed on shaft 103, on which the pinion 102 is mounted. Pinion 102 may be above raclr' 101, or below it, as shown in .Figs. 15 and 1, respectively, depending on which side of wheel 10% the weight 105 is hung.

Box 98 is provided with an openlng 106 into which opening there projects a solid rubber or rubber faced roller 107 mounted on shaft 108 driven by a gear 109 which, in

turn, is driven by a gear 110 on shaft 111 which is driven by a gear 112 meshing with the already described gear 85. v

' Shaft 108 is pivotally hung from shaft 111 by arms 113 so;that the roller may be moved into and out of the opening106.

An arm llh -attached to the arm 113, i

,cpnnectedtojthe arm 115 whichis provided with a finger 116 that is moved a-short distance to the right upon each revolution of the. cam 117.

The cam 117 is on a shaft 118 which is driven by a chain and sprocket drive 119 as shown in Fig. 1. It is designed to make one revolution upon each revolution of the rollers A and'B.

The card feed operatesas follows: As finger 116 drops into the notch of the cam 117,the roller, 107, which is continuously rotated by gears 109, 110, 112 and 85 in the direction of the arrow, contacts witha card in the space 97 and shoves it out through the opening 99 between the upper. pair of feed rollers 88 and 89. These rollers 88 and 89 are started justafter the card reaches them. Rollers 91 and92fare designed to start after the card has actually'j'reached -them,that is to say, afterthe' card has.

started to buckle slightly. It is apparent that if these lowerrollers were started too soon, they would tend to pull the card away from the upper rollers; and tend to tear the card. Rollers 91 and 92 feed the card downwardly to the rollers A and B shown in Fig.;1'2 and rotate at a peripheral ,speed higher than that of the, rollers A and B so that the card 1 tends to buckle. slightly as it comes into contact with the rollers A and B so that there will be no tendency of the rollers A and B to pull the card away from the rollers 91 and 92 and so tear it.

Referring now to Fig. 23, one of the rollers, such as Bis shown mounted on a standard 120 held to a base 121 by pins 122 moving in slots'123. Bearing against the stand ard 120 are a, plurality ofv resilient devices 12 1 which normallyhold the rollers A and B in contact but which will allow the rollers to spring apart to allow a fastener. element which is not properly positioned in its recess to pass between the rollers without jamming any of the parts. Theroller B simply snaps over the improperly positioned stud and the machine continues its normal functioning.

The rollers A and B may beprovided with grooves 125 extending parallel to the shafts of the rollers, the purpose of these grooves being to carry away any excess of fastener elements which may have accidentally come down the chutes 2, or which failed to properly seat in the recesses 2. Such superfluous fastener. elements drop into-the grooves 125 and so do not jam between the rollers. drop out ofthe grooves as the rollers A and .13 pass their contacting point.

Referring to Fig. 8, an overflow opening 1201's shown'of a diameter slightly greater than an individual socket element. The nor-- mal velocity of a socket element down the groove causes it to jump this overflow groove 126, but whenthe chute belowthe opening 1261 .ffihth exce fa ener elements They simply drop out through the-overflow and so any jamming is prevented in the upper part of thechute.

The different sets of cooperating parts have now been described indetail as to their functioning and the operation of the whole machine may be briefly summarized as follows:

The hopper 24 is filled with stud elements and the hopper 48 is filled with socket-elements, The agitator sleeves 32 cause the several fastener elements to pass down into the respective feed chutes 28 and 59- with all the stud elements with the head up and all the socket elements with the socket opening facing up. The studs and sockets fill up the upper part of the groove in the blocks 35 and 61 and six of them are fed downwardly through the lower part of the grooves and into the chutes 72 upon each reciprocation of the-slides 37 and 63. The peripheral speed of the rollers A and B which are continuously rotated, is such that a new set of recesses 2 come into registry with the openings 73 shortly after each set of six fastener elements drops out of the opening 73. The air suction holds the fastener elements in their several recesses and as the rollers A and B rotate, a card is fed between them by the rollers 91 and 92 and the studs of the stud elements pass through the card and snap into engagement with the socket elements from the other side, whereby the two parts of the fastener are clamped on two sides of the card and so inoimted thereon ready for the market. Suitable printing or advertising matter may, of course, be put on the card 1. I a

The finished cards drop into a chute 127 which leads to a suitable receptacle.

While I have illustrated in detail one embodiment of my invention it should be understood that a great many of the parts may be modified and still carry out the particular features of my invention.

I claim:

1. In a device of the character described, means for holding a set of fastener elements, means for holding a set of cooperating fastener elements, and means for subjecting one of said holding means to suction, whereby air pressure is effective in aiding the holding means to hold the several fastener elements.

2. In a device of the character described, means provided with recesses for holding a set of fastener elements, means for holding a set of cooperating fastener elements and means for subjecting said recesses to suction whereby to hold the fastener elements in said recesses.

3. In a device of the character described, a pair of rollers for holding respective cooperating sets of fastener elements, one of said rollers being provided with recesses for the reception of fastener elements and means for subje'ctingsaid recesses to suction, whereby to hold the fastener elements in place in said recesses. 1

- 4%. In a device of the character described, a roller provided with recesses for holdinga set of fastener'elements, a second roller provided with means for holding a second set of fastener elements adapted to respectively cooperate with said first mentioned set of fastener elements, means for feeding one card between said rollers for each revolution'of the same, and means for rotating the rollers so as to grip the card therebetween. 5. In a device of the character described, a pair of rollers, each provided with registering means for holding fastener elements,

meansffor driving said rollers so as to grip a card thercbetween, and resilient mounting means for one of said rollers, whereby it will give in case of improper positioning of a fastener element on either roller.

6. In a machine for carding snap fasteners of the stud and socket type, a roller provided with means for holding stud elements, means for sorting out and delivering stud elements to the roller with the stud facing outwardly, a second roller provided with means for holding socket elements,

means for sorting out and delivering socket 7 elements to the second roller with the socket facing outwardly, means for driving said rollers and means for feeding a card between said roller. a

7. In a'machine for carding snap fasteners, of the type provided with a central 1 projection or head," a hopper, a feed chute leading therefrom, said feed-chute being provided with a groove alongone side into which the heads of fastener elements are adapted to enter when facing in the proper direction, a roller associated withthe feed chute to which the fastener elements are fed, a second cooperating roller, means for feeding socket fastener elements to the second roller with the sockets facing outwardly, and means for feeding a card between the rollers.

8. In a machine for carding snap fasteners of the type provided with a central,

projection or head, a hopper, a pair of feed chutes leading therefrom, each provided with a groove extending along its length, the two chutes facing in opposite directions and being designed so that all the fastener elements are delivered facing in one direction, a roller to which the fastener elements are delivered, a second roller cooperating with the first roller, and means for feeding a card between said rollers.

9. In a machine for carding snap fasteners of the stud and socket type, a roller provided with means for holding a series of stud fastener elements, a second roller provided with means for holding a series of and means for feeding a card between the rollers. v V

10. In a machine for carding snap fasteners, a. roller provided with means to hold a set of stud fastener elements, a second roller provided with means to hold a set of socket fastener elements, means associated with each roller for sorting out and feeding the stud and socket elements to respective rollers with the studs and sockets facing outwardly, means for feeding a card to said rollers, means for driving said'rollers and means for subjecting the holding means of one of said rollers to suction whereby to aid in holding the fastener on the roller.

11. In a machine for carding snap fasteners, a roller provided with means for holdinga set of .studfastener elements, a secondroller provided with means for holding a set of socket fastener elements, means elements in position associated with each roller for sorting out andfeeding the stud and socket elements to respective rollers with the studs and sockets faclng outwardly, means for feeding a card to said rollers and means for rotatlngsaid rollers at different speed at different parts of a revolution.

12. In a machine for carding snap fasteners, a roller provided with means for holding a set of stud fastener elements, a second roller provided with means for holding a set of socket fastener elements, means associated with each roller for sorting out and for feeding the stud andsocket elements to respective rollers with the studs andsock'ets facing outwardly, means for feeding a card to said rollers and means, comprising elliptical gears, for rotating said rollers at different speed at'diiferent parts of a revolution;

13. In a machine for carding stud'and socket fasteners of the type in which the stud and socket fastener elements are each provided with a central head, the combination of a hopper for the stud elements, a hopper for the socket elements, each hopper being provided with a feed chute leading therefrom, each feed chute being provided with a groove extending along the middle of one side in which the central heads of the fastener elements move, and a pair of cooperating rollers to which the, stud' and vsocket elements are respectively delivered.

14:. In a machine for carding stud and socket fasteners of the type in which the stud and socket fastener elements are each provided With a central head, the combination of a hopper for holding a plurality of one of said elements, two oppositely facing feed chutes associated with the hopper,

each of the chutes being provided with a groove along the middle of its outer side into which the heads of the elements are adapted to enter, and moving means pro vided with fastener element receiving recesses, the feed chutes being arranged to deliver the fastener elements to said recesses so that they all face in the same direction.

In testimony whereof I afiix my signature.

EUGENE L. ROGER. 

